Coincedence and Consequence
by darkenedmirrors.softfocus
Summary: People grow over time. One summer, after the death of his god father and the desertion of his friends, Harry Potter gets a little wiser. Rating is for language atm, subject to change.


For all those concerned:

Only the prolougue will be in second person, the rest shall be 3rd person.

Prologue

They were walking toward you now. A malicious smirk here, crazed grin there.

"One on one." You say. "Piers first." You figure Piers is the best to start out with. You don't really know the others, can't summon up enough energy to fight them. But Piers. You hate Piers. He made your life a living hell.

At first, they all look at you as if you're crazy. You have no right to be making demands, it's you who's out numbered. Then Dudley says, 'okay then' and they agree as if it were his plan all along.

When Piers steps up, relaxed shoulders and bored eyes, you're not unnerved by his confidence. You're so used to being underestimated by now that you've gone past expecting it, you welcome it like a long lost brother [parent, friend, sister, godfather, headmaster]

Ten minutes later you're about to smash Pier's head into the pavement but Dudley grabs you just in time. You look around at the other boys, his friends, who had done nothing to stop you. White faced and cowardly, all of 'em. Fucking Hufflepuffs in Gryffindor clothing. [that's unfair to the puffs, they help their friends, you know this first hand]

Dudley is the only one who doesn't look like he's about to shit his pants. Instead, he has this expression between confusion and realization. Like he just figured something out only to have that unlock something else to be confused by. Your cousin dismisses his friends, telling them to make sure Piers gets fixed up so his parents won't notice. Before they leave, Dudley warns him not to tell anyone what Harry did to him and Piers gives you this _look_ so murderous and full of rage that you would be scared if you hadn't already faced death.

As they leave you hear a whispered "So that's why he got sent to Saint Brunnings"

---

You wake up to moonlight and the odd sight of Dudley in your doorway.

"I heard you talking about a kid named Cedric" He says. And immediately you know, that he must heard it the next room over.

"I'll be fine, leave me alone." You spit, but without any vehemence. He comes in anyway.

Your bedsprings squeak in protest as he sits down.

"You were screaming." Dudley says simply. You can't see his face because it's too dark. All you can make out is the outline of a gigantic hulking mass.

"Get out Dudley." You don't have time for this. Cruel whispers are still echoing in your head. You want to sleep. You want to be alone.

The mass shrugs and moves slowly toward the doorway. The door closes slowly behind it.

At Lunchtime, which is really breakfast[since you don't wake up soon enough to catch the first meal, but doesn't matter because petunia only makes Salad anyway), Dudley is staring at you with such a lack of subtlety that you're sure that Snape can feel it in his bat cave.

After eating, he corners you as you make your way back upstairs, to study or something.

"What d'you want?" You're a little wary, with due cause. This is Dudley.

"Come hang out with us today" He says, and is that sincerity?

"What? With you and your little group of vigilantes?" You ask incredulously. "No thanks, but I've got better things to do" But you don't and Dudley knows this as well as you do.

"Come on, Harry" He prods, and for a moment, you swear that you can hear Ron. "You need to relax a bit, and I know just what you need."

Dudley's lackeys are waiting for him at the park. They remind you of faithful dogs, which reminds you of Sirius, which, in turn, reminds you of Ron and Hermione and before your thoughts can remind you of something else, Dudley interrupts them.

"This is Joe" He points to the brown-haired one on the swings. Joe smiles and waves.

"Walter is the one walking up" He says gesturing down the road. "He lives past Pratchett Ave so he always gets here last."

"And Blondie here is Johnny" Johnny gives you a tight nod, he's standing next to Joe, holding on the the chain of a broken swing. For some reason, Johnny strikes you as a frightened cat. Maybe it's the stiff posture, or the pinched corners of his mouth. Most likely it's the wild look in his eyes, slightly squinted as the dart from your green ones to Dudley's, to the ground then back to yours.

Walter walks up. "I dropped by Pier's, his parents are blowing a whole lot of hot air over how we brought him back last night. We tried to get him better, Big D, but did you get a look at him after what he" Walters eyes cut to yours, he gestures vaguely in your direction "did to him?"

They're all starting at you now, probably being reminded of what you did to Piers. Out of curiosity rather than guilt or remorse, you ask: "How bad was he?"

"Most of the damage was in the face. He's basically a lump of purple, green, and black . And I think you broke a rib or two." He sounds as if he is talking about the weather .. Joe scrunches up his nose in what you assume is disgust.

"Yeah, it was pretty gross.. There was blood everywhere." Joe says.

You didn't notice it then, but afterwards, when you had to steal a clean shirt off a clothing wire , it hit you that you must have really fucked that kid up.

The silence is getting a bit awkward, the tension is palpable. Shoving your hands into your pockets you say to Dudley, "Are we going to do something or not?"

He answers "Oh yeah, come along then."

About ten blocks away from the park, and twelve from number 4, you start wondering about two things.

The first has to do with Dudley and his friends. You know for a fact that if someone even thoughtabout Ron or Hermione you'd be seeking for some kind of retribution. This why you cannot understand why everyone is acting so nonchalant about the fact that you bashed one of their friends' face in. It doesn't seem like even care.

Johnny and Joe walk behind you, Joe humming along to a tune on the Walkman they're sharing. Walter is somewhere between the front with you and Dudley and the back with Joe and Johnny. No one has even mentioned anything about the fight since you all left park and you're content to just let this ride out.

The second thing is where the hell you're going. No one has asked Dudders, so you assume they know. You've never really ventured this far outside the neighborhood before so you're feeling rather lost. As first, you were distracted by Joe, who is the type of person who feels like they need to fill in every moment with the sound of their own voice.

After Johnny had shoved his new Walkman at Joe in an attempt maybe, possibly, shut that fucking trap of his Walter had said "Jesus Christ, you could've given him that thing sooner" to which Johnny replied with a rather jumpy version of a shrug "It had a low battery, I wanted to save it until the end". This clued you in that you approaching your destination, which in turn, reminded you that you didn't even know what that destination was.

You're about to ask Dudley when he says "Here we are."

What? You look around, a little confused. All you see are rows and rows of town houses.

"Are we picking someone up?" You ask.

"Nah, we're going in." Dudley explains.

You follow Dudley up the stairs leading to the door. He walks in without knocking, which strikes you as strange. Maybe this good friend of his you don't know about?

The house is empty, you think with a sudden feeling of dread. Of furniture, of people, of everything but you, Dudley, and his cronies. So this is why they brought you here, to beat you up and leave you were no one can find you. How could you have been so stupid, you stupid stupid boy?

You hear Dudley's voice on the outer edge of your thoughts. You're thinking of a way out of this, There's no chance you can get away with that 'one on one' thing again. Maybe you can get away with using magic, just this once, to save yourself.

"You got the stuff?", Dudley says. You're not sure to who, you sort of fazed out. What stuff? You wonder if they've brought knives or something.

"Harry?" Joe asks. He's standing in front of you, waving his hand around.

"Huh?"

Dudley laughs, "he's already out of it and we haven't even gotten high yet". What?

"High?"


End file.
